Hygiene devices for use with water closets

ABSTRACT

Protective devices for use with toilet seats are described. They consist of an elongate waisted sheet, e.g. of 2 or 3 ply tissue, parts of which may be textured or guilted. The waist is located aver the front of the toilet seat in use, one end hanging down inside the bowl sufficiently far as to provide a protective barrier to prevent direct contact between the end of the penis of a male sitting on the seat with the inside surface of the wc pan.

[0001] This invention relates to hygiene devices for use with water closets and in particular to an improved device for enhancing both hygiene and comfort for male users.

[0002] British Patent Specification 2196031A discloses a disposable paper toilet seat cover which is designed to be temporarily adhered to the front of a toilet seat by means of a self-adhesive strip. The device is made of paper and is so configured that a paper flap hangs down inside the toilet bowl in order to prevent contact between the end of the penis of the user and the inside surface of the toilet bowl when the user is seated. The device disclosed in this specification, however, is complex to produce and inconvenient to use.

[0003] According to the present invention, there is provided a protective device adapted for use with a toilet seat which device consists of a generally elongate waisted body of flat highly flexible material, and which is generally symmetrical about its longitudinal axis and wherein the amount of material to one side of a centre line transverse to the longitudinal axis and at the narrowest portion of the waisted body is within 30% of the amount on the other side thereof.

[0004] In use, the waist portion of the device is placed on top of the frontmost portion of the toilet seat with its elongate axis of the device going from front to back of the seat. Because the device is flexible, one end of the device then hangs down in front of the toilet seat and the other hangs down inside the toilet seat and above the front uppermost portion of the water closet bowl. The dimensions of the device are so chosen that the front upper portion of the water closet bowl is covered by the device down to a level which can be expected to be lower than the lower end of the tip of the flaccid penis of the user.

[0005] In use, the device constitutes a physical barrier between the tip of the penis and the inside of the toilet bowl, and, indeed, a physical barrier on top of the front portion of the toilet seat. Because of the substantially symmetrical nature of the device, it stays in position when merely placed with the waisted section substantially over the front part of the toilet seat, and thus not only does it not require any additional fixing means, but additionally the user does not have to decide which way round to use the device, or to take any special steps to secure it in place; it is simply hung over the front portion of the seat before the user sits down.

[0006] If desired, the device may be impregnated overall or at one or both end portions with an appropriate germicide or antiseptic material.

[0007] The end of the device which hangs down outside of the water closet bowl provides a counterweight to the portion hanging inside the bowl, so enabling the device to be simply positioned without slippage. Additionally, the outer end constitutes a substantial tab which may simply be lifted, following the use of the water closet by the person concerned, moved over the aperture in the toilet seat and then released, whereon it drops into the toilet bowl enabling the entire device simply to be flushed away in customary fashion.

[0008] The device is preferably made of an appropriate tissue or synthetic tissue type of material, and may easily be made from recycled paper pulp. It is particularly preferred to make the device from a multi-ply tissue material, e.g. 2-ply or 3-ply, as this renders the device absorbent. This has the particular advantage that the tab hanging down in front of the seat may then be used as an absorbent wipe for the end of the penis accompanied by squeezing the penis to expel any urine still present in the urethra or trapped between the glans and the foreskin, leaving the penis empty and dry and avoiding the risk of urine staining the clothes of the user.

[0009] Within the constraints identified above, the shape of the device may vary, and, in particular, the ends of the elongate device may be rounded or squared off. Conveniently the device is simply stamped out from a web of appropriate material. The surface may be textured, or if the material is multi-ply, parts may be quilted. Texturing or quilting are valuable in bulking up the thickness of the device and accordingly improving its heat insulative capacity, i.e. if the penis of the user contacts the device internally of the bowl, it does not feel so cold as it might. The texturing or quilting may extend over the entire item or, for example, just over the ends, leaving the waist portion untextured.

[0010] Supplies of the device may be made available to any user of a toilet facility, for example by locating a supply in a suitable dispenser, either as a simple pile or, for example, in the form of a stack of interleaved centrally folded devices which can be extracted one by one through a slot in a housing, each one so extracted acting to pull the leading edge of the next in the stack partly through the slot so it can be grasped by the next user. The wasted section should not be so pinched that it cannot take the strain of pulling the succeeding unit, i.e. it must not tend to tear when the device about to be used is extracted from such an interleaved stack. Alternatively, packs of such devices may be provided for users to carry around and use when needed, either singly packaged, e.g. in a plastics or paper sachet, or in a small stack, e.g. surrounded by a plastics film cover.

[0011] A preferred design is shown in the accompanying drawing in plan. Preferably the overall length of the device is from 23 to 28 centimetres with the minimum width of the waisted portion being 4.5 to 5.5 centimetres. As indicated by the texturing, the bulged ends of the device have corrugated or quilted areas to promote absorption and increase the thermal insulative effect. 

1. A protective device adapted for use with a toilet seat which device consists of a generally elongate waisted body of flat highly flexible material, and which is generally symmetrical about its longitudinal axis and wherein the amount of material to one side of a centre line transverse to the longitudinal axis and at the narrowest portion of the waisted body is within 30% of the amount on the other side thereof.
 2. A device according to claim 1 and which is impregnated overall or at one or both end portions with a germicidal or antiseptic material.
 3. A device according to claim 1 or 2 and formed of a natural or synthetic tissue material.
 4. A device according to claim 3 wherein the tissue is a multi-ply tissue material.
 5. A device according to claim 4 wherein the multi-ply tissue material is textured or quilted over at least part of the body.
 6. A device according to any one of claims 1 to 5 wherein the ends of the elongate device are rounded.
 7. A device according to any one of claims 1 to 6 wherein the overall length of the device is from 23 to 28 centimetres with the minimum width of the waisted portion being 4.5 to 5.5 centimetres. 